The only occasion in which I previously saw The Danny Kaye Show prior to welcoming gradual telecasts of the series being released to DVD was a clip showcased on CBS: On the Air, the all-star gala stretched over seven nights to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the Tiffany Network. Kaye was one of the co-hosts for the Wednesday night edition, and they showed a sequence from his popular variety hour in which he chatted up precocious child star Victoria Meyerink, who would soon enjoy a short career of popularity appearing in films like Elvis Presley’s Speedway (1968) and on such shows as Green Acres and My Three Sons. (My memory is a bit rusty regarding the content in the clip, but I vaguely recall he sang a song to her as well.)
On the Air then reunited Kaye with a teenage Meyerink, whom I
had caught in an ABC Afterschool Special entitled “It Isn’t Easy Being a Teenage
Millionaire” two weeks earlier. (It
would be Victoria’s last gig as an actress, according to the [always reliable]
IMDb; since that time she has worked as an award-winning television
producer.) I remember the entertainer
gulped nervously and ad-libbed about how much she’d grown. (Look, I know that kind of gives off a creepy vibe—but Danny was referencing what he
always said to her whenever she appeared on his show as a child.) Kaye’s variety series, which aired over the
CBS Television Network from 1963-67 for a total of 120 telecast episodes, has
been MIA on home video for many years save for a 1993 video release entitled The
Best of Danny Kaye: The Television Years, which spotlighted classic
musical moments from the series. It was
released to DVD in May of 2012, and later in December of that same year Christmas
with Danny Kaye, a single disc with two Yuletide-themed telecasts (one
with Nat King Cole and the other with Peggy Lee) broke the log jam: there have
since been a number of small collections containing uncut episodes of the
variety hour starring the “Everyman of Entertainment.”
The latest Danny Kaye Show DVD release is Danny
Kaye: Legends, an MVD Visual collection released this past October 16th
that my Facebook chum Jeff Abraham (at Jonas PR) was generous enough to bring
to my attention by sending a screener my way.
Young Meyerink is featured in two of the telecasts, dated January 4 and
January 11, 1967. Meyerink’s spot would
usually occur near the end of the program; to demonstrate his amazing rapport
with audiences, Danny would set aside time at the end of each hour for a “quiet”
segment: an informal interaction with the studio audience and viewers, telling
jokes and singing songs in an intimate setting that allowed him to take a
breath from what was surely a strenuous workout for a man of his age. Kaye was 52 at the time The Danny Kaye Show
premiered on CBS-TV…but with his vim and vitality he often seemed twenty years
younger.
Danny Kaye: Legends is comprised of six telecasts from the 1963-67
variety series. The first two episodes
feature guest stars Lucille Ball (11/04/64) and Imogene Coca (12/09/64)—Lucy did
a 1962 TV special with Danny pre-Kaye Show, and Imogene would not
only be one of Kaye’s frequent guests she was an old friend from back in the
days when the two made two-reel comedies for Educational (she and Danny, along
with June Allyson and Barry Sullivan, appear in 1937’s Dime a Dance). These two
programs are among my favorites on the set, not only because of Lucy and
Imogene but because the black-and-white episodes of Kaye’s show seem to be of a
better visual quality than the later color efforts (the series discarded its
monochrome origins in the fall of 1965 as part of CBS’ commitment to make
buying a color TV worth the effort).
Granted, the color technology back then was still in its experimental
stage…so live and/or videotaped programs are not without their problems.
Old Home Week! |
This sketch could have been a Lucy Show episode! |
"Little Latin Lupe Lu..." |
…is Thurl “You’re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch” Ravenscroft, one-time Sportsman Quartet member and voice of Tony the Tiger (the animated mascot for Kellogg’s Frosted Flakes). Always nice to see Thurl, as you might imagine.
Appearing in a sketch with Danny is the incomparable Harold Gould. Other performers I spotted in skits on both DVDs include Jamie Farr and Henry Beckman. |
In addition, the George Burns show is worth the price of admission to
hear George and Danny swap some show business stories (including some hilarious
Jack Benny anecdotes) and George sing in his one-of-a-kind fashion (including Red Rose Rag and Ain’t Misbehavin’) with Danny and the show’s Earl Brown Singers.
The Hillcrest Golf Club story Danny tells about Jack Benny
is gold, Jerry.
|
Jeff was also nice to enough to send me—to be honest, he passed along a metric ton of swag…so you’ll probably be reading reviews within this next month—the earlier MVD Visual release of The Best of The Danny Kaye Show (released in October of 2014). As with Legends, Best of also features six telecasts with guest stars like Harry Belafonte (09/15/65) and Ella Fitzgerald (10/05/66), not to mention Kaye’s premiere telecast from September 25, 1963 (with guests Jackie Cooper and Lovelady Powell)—which opens with a hilarious gag in which the star’s entrance is heralded by trumpets, dancing girls, soldiers, and Egyptian slaves carrying a litter which, when the curtain is pulled back, reveals…
“Wouldn’t this have been a wonderful opening for Danny Kaye?” Jack, the true master of timing, marvels after the perfect pause to milk the laughter. As the procession moves on, we see that the guy bringing up the rear…
Second banana Harvey Korman and Kaye play astronauts in a "teaser" sketch. |
The Belafonte and Fitzgerald telecasts feature sensational musical numbers: I loved Danny and Harry’s rendition of Belafonte’s Calypso hit Mama Look a Boo (Harry can’t keep a straight face when Kaye comes out dressed in Belafonte-like Calypso garb) and Ella, Danny and guest Buddy Greco go to town on It Don’t Mean a Thing (If It Ain’t Got That Swing). The sixth telecast on this disc, with guest Liza Minnelli (January 5, 1966; Liza with a “Z” sings For Every Man There’s a Woman and Maybe This Time), also features a fun trio of Kaye, John Gary and Alan Young on Just an Honest Mistake. (Alan and Danny also do a hilarious race car sketch with regular Joyce Van Patten on this last one as well.)
Like Carol Burnett—who inherited Harvey Korman when her CBS
show premiered in the fall of 1967—Danny Kaye started out with a series of
specials on “The Stars’ Address” before being offered a weekly variety hour in
1963 (though I need to emphasize Carol benefitted from a clause in her CBS
contract). Originally, Kaye’s program
was going to air right after the network’s powerhouse Ed Sullivan Show at 9pm
Sunday…but the showman said “Pasadena” (heh…Dena) to what was widely considered
a “graveyard slot”—NBC’s Bonanza was on the same time, and
would finish ranked at #2 by the end of the season before spending the next
three seasons at the number-one series in the Nielsens. (Judy Garland’s show was slotted against Bonanza
instead…and though her hour had more than its share of problems, having to go
up against the Cartwrights certainly didn’t do her series any favors.)
In its first season, The Danny Kaye Show finished at #30
among all TV programs…and it would go on to win three Emmy Awards that season,
including Outstanding Program Achievement in the Field of Variety and Outstanding
Performance in a Variety or Musical Program or Series (for Mr. David Daniel Kaminsky). The show also snagged a George Foster Peabody
honor as one of the best entertainment programs that year. But
stiff competition soon began to gnaw at Danny’s ratings: first, from NBC’s Wednesday
Night at the Movies the following season…and the same network’s I Spy
after that. When you stop to
consider that much of the Danny Kaye fan base was composed of younger viewers
who enjoyed him in such films as Hans
Christian Andersen (1952) and Merry
Andrew (1958), you have to wonder why CBS didn’t consider finding an
earlier time slot to beef up Kaye’s standing in the Nielsens. Low ratings and diffident critical support
ultimately brought The Danny Kaye Show a cancellation after four seasons. It was a different situation on the other
side of the pond; the United Kingdom has enjoyed a long love affair with Danny
Kaye (Bob Hope once memorably cracked: “Danny has been practically adopted by
the British…I used his dressing room when I was over there…it was a modest
affair—just two mirrors and a throne”),
and The
Danny Kaye Show was imported in time to appear on BBC-2 when that
channel began transmissions and was a hit for three seasons.
I’m not as enthusiastic a Danny Kaye fan as some of my
classic movie brethren and sistren; I enjoy a lot of his movies—I think The
Court Jester is a movie comedy masterpiece, and I’m also partial to The Inspector General, Knock on Wood and On the Double—but sometimes a little Kaye goes a long way (I think
the best adjective to describe his radio show is “precious”). Watching these telecasts has brought me a new
appreciation for Danny, and I hope MVD Visual and Kaye’s estate continues to
make these accessible for home video collectors. For you see—I cannot deny the ferocity of the
man’s talent; he was a master entertainer in addition to being a goodwill
ambassador for UNICEF, an accomplished chef, a licensed pilot, a baseball
enthusiast (he was at one time a part-owner of the Seattle Mariners and possessed
an encyclopedic knowledge of America’s greatest pastime) and a honorary member
of both the American College of Surgeons and the American Academy of Pediatrics. “Life is a great big canvas,” he would remark
in later years, “throw all the paint you can at it.” With that in mind, I cannot recommend highly
enough acquiring the DVD sets Legends: Danny Kaye and The
Best of the Danny Kaye Show for your own personal art gallery.
1 comment:
As a kid, I never missed The Danny Kaye Show and have long opined that it was the best variety show nobody ever saw because of its absence on video. Only the Carol Burnett Show ever approached Danny Kaye in the brilliance and quality of musical revue numbers and high-level guest performers; Carol may have had more consistently excellent comedy sketch writing. What a brilliant performer the perfectionistic Kaye was, able to work in nearly any musical genre. And yes, CBS executives were a bunch of obstinate morons for not putting this show on earlier; if they had, it might have run for a decade. His show revealed why Kaye's persona was so valuable to UNICEF--he may have been bipolar and difficult with adults, but an underlying sincerity and directness came across to children even without the forced "warmth" so easily faked by many celebrities.
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